Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to digital smart grid systems and, more specifically, to a dual mode smart grid meter.
Description of the Related Art
Utility companies typically measure customer consumption of a commodity, such as electrical power or water, via a utility meter located at a customer premise. Historically, an individual would travel to the customer premise and visually inspect the utility meter to record an indicated consumption value. A subsequent generation of utility meter employs a radio communications technology known in the art as an automatic meter reading (AMR), which enables utility meters to be read via a wireless meter reader. An AMR utility meter periodically transmits a consumption value, and the wireless meter reader typically listens for asynchronously arriving transmissions from AMR utility meters. In a typical usage scenario, a wireless meter reader is disposed within a motor vehicle, which drives slowly along different customer streets to allow the wireless meter reader to accumulate customer consumption data.
While utility meters employing AMR wireless transmission technology are an improvement in both meter reading accuracy and efficiency, a person still needs to travel near each utility meter to take a reading from the meter, potentially introducing human error in the process. Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) technology enables utility meters to form bidirectional mesh networks, enabling a reader system to access a distant utility meter without needing to be in near physical proximity to the distant utility meter. A utility network built out to exclusively implement AMI meters enables tremendous efficiency and accuracy because each utility meter within the network may be read from a central location with little opportunity for human error. However, many utility operators have already invested significant resources to upgrade manually-read utility meters to meters with AMR technology. AMR systems and AMI systems may employ orthogonal communication protocols and architectures, and therefore do not conventionally interoperate. As a consequence, the conventional upgrade path from AMR meters to AMI meters requires a substantial system overhaul, which many utility operators are reluctant to implement.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is a wireless utility meter system architecture that enables efficient use of both AMR to AMI technologies.